Privacy should be one of your main priorities in these times. It is a basic human right & it's being striped from us more & more as time goes on. Privacy is pivotal in preserving the respect, well being & reputation of humans. The way the world is headed, you might as well live-stream the inside of your house to governments & corporations. When your privacy deceases, your ability to be controlled increases. You can be blase about your privacy; "Pfft, my data is already out here" & yes a lot of it is, but ultimately this will only work against you in the long run. We need to change this way of thinking; teach our children the importance, mitigate further risks likely to come from poor privacy in the future. From here on in, things are changing rapidly & it's extremely important you adapt - Don't make it easy for them. Corporate & Government surveillance is a thing, if you can't see that, I'm sorry - you're delusional. If you think they're are entitled to your privacy to prevent crime, you're allowing them to continue committing it. Crime will exist in any system. Less crime will occur in a decentralized-bitcoin-based world, where central authorities cannot manipulate or corrupt the money supply. Let mathematics & a distributed network of consensus take charge. Less crime will exist in more privacy-focused-world. The amount of citizen data leaked to China & other foreign countries because of your government, is revolting. Connecting your ID to your entire life is dangerous for every person (most can't see it yet).
When it comes to privacy & your money, this can literally affect you on every level. As we enter a cashless society (using COVID as an excuse) your digitally credited funds are more easily tracked, your freedom is starting to dry up. This is only the beginning. When you tap your card at a merchant, you already hand over all your info - no permission required. With cash & Bitcoin (If you use the right tools) you don't . What you do with your money, should be your business. I'm not saying increase your privacy to evade your taxes, increase your privacy to prevent future control & the loss your rights. Increase your privacy for the safety of yourself & your family.
Bitcoin & cryptocurrencies has sparked global competition for banks & central banks to digitalize their currencies - this is very bad news for your privacy as your money will soon be linked to your identity by default. When they remove your privacy it makes you paranoid, making it easier to instill fear for control & taxation. Imagine being penalized a percentage of your income because you spoke negatively about the government or had misaligned political views. Imagine you're about to board a plane, your passport is registered at customs, but since you haven't had the COVID vaccine, the government freezes all your funds. I believe governments & central banks are wanting to release their digital currencies before the world catches on to all the benefits of Bitcoin. In my opinion though, it doesn't matter what they do, as long as Bitcoin survives everyone has an option. If Bitcoin could be killed, it would have by now.
Whether your government has the best intentions or not (In their own mind), you cannot ignore the warning signs of it all getting far worse. Personally I'm really beginning to see the dark side of it all & lose all trust. Some examples that come to mind:
- Mandatory vaccinations for COVID-19 & likely every vaccine after. This goes against the constitution, every basic human right & on a logical level just seems straight up wrong. There is documented evidence that long-term damage was caused by earlier vaccines such as the Swine-flu. There has recently been evidence found that these COVID-19 tests have merely been testing for a chromosome which already exists in all of us. Chromosome 8 - linked to intelligence & autism. There's a lot of speculation these vaccines are designed to attack this chromosome & decrease your intelligence. There is further evidence the vaccine is also designed to have an auto-immune effect on your body, making you sick slowly. Now this sounds absolutely insidious doesn't it? It's like they're trying to cull the population. I've now heard multiple doctors from multiple countries say the same thing. You can laugh & call it another conspiracy theory or do you research. I think it's quiet obvious this whole charade has been ridiculously over-blown, purely to instill fear & make you more likely to comply to orders. Just because someone has power & authority, doesn't mean everything they say is correct or ethical. See links:
1000 German Doctors say COVID-19 is 100% a Scam
Dr Carrie Madej - Transhumanism 2.0 - A Wake Up Call To The World
Urgent warning by Italian medical doctor Matteo Arena (English subs)
CDC Says Over 90% of Deaths Weren't COVID19 and 90% of Tests False Positives
Note: A lot of valuable & accurate content like this is being deleted from Youtube, I'd recommend getting yourself an account on LBRY - It's a decentralized, censorship-free, opensource & community driven version of YouTube.
-Mandatory lock downs, using drones to surveillance & enforce the wearing of masks. There's a ridiculous amount of evidence that masks are ineffective & only cause more harm. Perhaps face masks will help AI detect humans who comply - Yes like the SCI-FI movies. I personally think these lock-downs have very little to do with COVID, they're mostly designed to keep people from protesting about how corrupt they are. It's about exercising control & instilling fear so you obey like the good slave you are. Yes COVID-19 is an infectious virus, however data from many sources confirms it's no worse than a bad influenza. After you analyse this from a few angles, it really makes you question everything. Look at how Sweden is handling it compared to the rest of the world, look at their outcome. The numbers & the narratives simply don't add up.
-News reporters saying the wrong thing & having government officials knocking at their door. Your 'Free speech' is subtly being censored if your words aren't in the interest of corporations/governments. Bitcoin & the digital age is here to preserve it. As Kanye West tweeted last year "Decentralize". By removing central control, everyone has power but no single person/group has power.
-Banning of YouTube videos including content containing Bitcoin/crypto, Natural health info decreasing revenue of big pharma, government conspiracies like what I just mentioned. List goes on and on, should speak for itself. If they weren't trying to ban it, I wouldn't be suspicious. YouTube is owned by Google, who liaises directly to the NSA (National Security Association) & the government. No secrets there, but please read between the lines & come to your own conclusions. Break out of the heard, become the wolf. Become a critical thinker, worse case scenario you become wiser & far less gullible.
-Banning privacy coins like Monero on exchanges. This should also speak for itself. Apparently there's a privacy act (What a hypocrisy we live in). Bitcoin does not have any privacy by default yet, however there are many ways to improve it. Will discuss soon.
Now whether you believe any of these "Conspiracy Theories" or not, I personally believe they have one major incentive to take advantage of COVID-19 - To print more money to service government debt & distribute more wealth to the 1%! - which makes me believe these theories are entirely possible. There's too much incentive in this system to be corrupt. If you have to question why people do things, money is normally the biggest motivator. Fiat currencies are inevitably all going to zero one day, they must know this... so why not use this opportunity to profit. Between now & the collapse, they can manipulate & control the money supply to their advantage. By controlling the money supply they can control the people - like a weapon. They can create/destroy money, raise interest rates, acquire new debt & much more. Essentially our money system is a place where money is created air of thin air for the elite & billed to the tax payer. They are extremely good at coming up with fancy catch words to deceive you (Quantitative Easing QE, Stimulus, Inflation, Debt), all of them essentially just mean tax. You think taxes are high, you're only seeing the tip of the iceberg.
The levels of theft to the current financial system are orders of magnitude higher than what the majority think. Articles like this - Basically the central bank in Australia will print (QE) $200B for their rich banker buddies, at the cost of tax payers & their savings, "because of COVID-19". Banks were broke well before COVID, this is just an excuse to make the 1% richer. $200B is enough money to give every tax payer in Australia roughly $10k - It's absolutely ridiculous how unethical this monetary system is & very few people even question it. It's completely immoral to ask the tax payer to rectify the shortfalls of a corrupt political & banking system. The central banking scam is common all over the world. We need to stop having so much faith in the people running this system. It's not transparent one bit, only deception. It's the greatest slave trade in human history. When your 1st world country suddenly becomes a 3rd world, you'll see first hand why Bitcoin matters.
Money is power, without it there's no governing body or central point of control. The future money has been spent for multiple generations, the debt cannot be paid back. In order to service the new debt more tax & money printing will be required. Over the years, I've personally noticed the loss of government benefits & tax increases. It's being done slowly, in the hopes it will fly under the RADAR. As taxes rise; so will crime, riots, protests. Interest rates will most likely rise to slow currency devaluations when inflation turns to hyper-inflation. But as you see both will have negative effects on society. If they are able to subtly control the population through lockdowns/vaccine, this would be a massive benefit & keep the scam alive, that is central banking & outrageous taxation, going much longer. In the mean time they're distracting people with all this 'free' stimulus money to help sweeten the deal. In reality it's just further sly taxation, but most people don't understand that yet. I see so many people comment on government Twitter accounts: "Where does the money come from?". It comes from you, future you & your children. Thankfully we have Bitcoin now & can protest this madness from home. Every fraction of Bitcoin bought, is another dollar sold. Money is power, if you want to strip government power encourage all your friends to just buy Bitcoin. It's going to have a much more powerful effect in the long run & no one gets hurt.
The ugly truth is the financial elite are disgustingly rich because they drain the wealth for the citizens, and they've become even richer during these times. The wealth equality between the 1% & working class is first hand evidence a socialist political construct only leads to corruption. The current monetary system is a Pyramid & Ponzi scheme, designed to enslave you. Not physically, more sly - your time. Work = Money = Time. Time is your most valuable asset! We work our entire life for a pension/super fund that is massively devalued by inflation & taxes. Most people retire for a small percentage of their life, some don't even get there. A lot of hard earned super finds its way back to the government. The fact the age of retirement keeps increasing should bother you. People are living longer, they want to capitalize on it. Again, central banking is the the single largest deception & slave trade in human history, very few understand the theft .If the masses understood it tomorrow, there'd be riots everywhere - & we're suppose to believe everything they tell us about COVID-19.
Bitcoin will play a massive role in future events. It is textbook capitalism - lets bring back the free market & give everyone a fair chance! Let's end the monopoly governments have on... everything. Behind closed doors, I bet they're laughing at us. They're betting we're too stupid to figure out the scam they're running. The media is mostly owned & controlled by the government. This video perfectly sums it up & it's very humorous. If you think they actually care about your well-being they would print money equally for everyone, but they don't. Of course the 1% still believe they're deserving of all the printed money - Cantillon Effect, why not take advantage of a monetary collapse & pandemic. It provides an extremely lush lifestyle for them. It allows them to control. This video is from ~7 years ago perfectly sums up the financial system.
Please wake up. Look at the current situation, it doesn't take a genius to realize humans are greedy by default. If you base all your future opinions on this fact, you will continually see the crime at hand. It is what it is, but don't stress, there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Thankfully Bitcoin is a choice for the people, it's here to save us. If for some reason it fails, we're screwed (I'm 99.99% sure it won't). Distributed systems are extremely robust. Look at Pirate Bay; it's still not dead, it's much less distributed & robust.
Being in the Bitcoin space has made me realize you cannot trust anyone, always do you own research & due diligence - always try to see both sides of an argument. Look at things from as many angles & perspectives as you can. If it seems to good to be true, it probably is - keep your SCAM-DAR on full alert. In this instance, I really believe it's beginning to be more & more clear.
We need privacy in commerce; whether it's to conceal company payroll transactions, hide personal account balances, or prevent state/corporate actors - the list goes on and on. When you use Bitcoin by default, it can reveal a lot about you. Cash is currently the most private means to transact as there is no digital footprint. There are future upgrades to the protocol coming to Bitcoin that will massively improve it's privacy by default;Taproot & Schnorr. Coinswap is another tool coming which sounds very interesting too.
There are many ways to improve privacy for your Bitcoin transactions in the mean time:
-NEVER talk to anyone about your Bitcoin holdings. Obviously pass on the word, but keep your balances very vague. Zero knowledge of any asset of value is normally the best security practice. Always think OPSEC when online, on the phone & in person.
-NEVER re-use a BTC address - when you do this, it concentrates all your history into one address, way too easy to track/monitor. You should be able to create new accounts within your wallet to avoid this too.
-UTXO management (Unspent Transaction Outputs) - Think of these as individual coins & notes in your physical wallet. When you combine UTXO's, you link transaction history. Using wallets like Wasabi can assist with this. Other wallets you will have to go to the coin control feature. More wallets are coming with coin control standard. Spend individual UTXO's if possible.
-Verify your own transactions through your hardware wallet on your own node over TOR/VPN. This gives you true self-sovereignty (become your own private bank).
- Avoid KYC exchanges if possible (ID linked to your transactions). Buy your Bitcoin from another person directly (peer-to-peer) using services like hodlhodl.com or Bisq exchange (DEX peer-to-peer exchange). Eventually there'll be no KYC & a circular economy will be formed outside of government control. Also HODL your Bitcoin until there is no government or central banking system (things will change at some point a lot). If you never sell, you don't have to pay Capital Gains Tax. Everyone hates CGT, just more forced theft. They try to sweeten the deal by saying "You can offset your losses"... If you keep losing, they're not paying you shit!
- Earn it. Simply ask your employer to pay your wage in Bitcoin (maybe ask for 10% decease as an incentive). Yes you may appear to lose in the short-term but when you factor in, no KYC, inflation & Bitcoin's massive upside potential, you're really not. 21 million coins, it's a game of accumulation.
- Use decentralized trust-less CoinJoin services to mix & obfuscate your Bitcoin. The top 3 in my opinion are Wasabi (all in one privacy focused wallet), Samurai with Dojo through Whirlpool & JoinMarket. Personally I've only used Wasabi & I think it's great but a lot people in the space prefer Samourai. As far I can see there's pros & cons to both. There are a lot of "Bitcoin mixing" sites you have to stay well clear of as they are centralised & not open source. Yes some of them aren't scams but you're trusting they won't steal your Bitcoin. CoinJoin is designed to break the link in your transaction history, however if you're not careful, say you mix previous Bitcoin UTXO's or reveal your real IP, your privacy can easily be compromised, so please do further research. Only use this article for ideas.
-After mixing UTXO's using CoinJoin, open a Lightning Channel. Lightning transactions are hidden within an on-chain multi-signature transaction & aren't publicly visible on a ledger. Lightning is private by default, however your IP can be tracked. Be sure to use a node or wallet that supports TOR. Your IP is like your number plate online.
-As a merchant use BTCPay Server - Probably one of the most important projects as it opens the flood gates to a Bitcoin circular economy. It makes accepting Bitcoin/Lightning through an open source & decentralized gateway much easier. Regulators are going to hate this one. The cost of enforcing laws for BTCPay server will likely be way too high. Decentralized, distributed & open-source software is extremely powerful & liberating.
-Use Breeze Lightning wallet to transact Bitcoin on the go - Makes Lightning easy. I'm still waiting for a good mobile wallet that has TOR implemented, I'm sure it's coming.
-Use Stonewall - I haven't used this one myself however I've read it provides an extra layer of privacy again.
-Never provide your XPUB (extended public key) to anyone as it allows you to connect all addresses in your wallet - Very bad for privacy.
-Pay Bitcoin/Lightning transactions using Monero - xmr.to. Use Monero as an intermediary to mix your coins. Why not just buy & hold Monero you ask? I think Monero competes with Lightning. There are many other reasons why I believe Bitcoin is still #1 & why I believe this trend will likely continue - see earlier posts.
-By purchasing a node from mynodebtc.com & getting yourself a decent hardware wallet like Cold Card, all these things mentioned above become easier, more private & secure.
Outside of Bitcoin:
-Use a VPN & enable your kill-switch setting for extra protection. Personally I think you should use a reputable service like Nord, Private Internet Access or Express VPN. At least there's less incentive for them to leak or sell your data as their reputation is on-the-line. Avoid 'free' VPNs - they're probably going to get their money by selling/stealing your data. I guess it depends who you trust more, your ISP/Government or your VPN provider. This is a controversial topic. I still think a decent VPN is worth your time. Also if someone asks "what are you trying to hide?", your privacy is a basic human right! There's a lot of law abiding citizens who use a VPN purely for their own safety. You can use a TOR browser, however traffic is very slow & you'll be waiting ages.
-Use Firefox Mozilla Browser instead of Chrome or IE with some decent privacy add ons.
-Get rid of centralized social media apps (run by Zuckerberg especially) i.e FB, Instagram etc. The dude is one of the biggest slithering serpents in the tech industry. The amount of permissions his apps require should make you question his intentions. At minimum, go to your app settings & switch off all permissions. The microphone permission you enable by default when you install, is listening to everything you say and do. He capitalizes on your private data by selling it to governments & corporations.
-Use open-source operating systems on your PC like Linux Ubuntu. Bill Gates & WHO clearly have a hidden agenda to control the world. I don't trust him one bit. Same could be said for Apple. Large corporations get pulled into the vortex of government corruption.
-Use GrapheneOS for your mobile phone, it eliminates all google apps. It's a privacy focused open-source android operating system. See video. You will need to get a google phone (they are fairly well priced on Amazon, make sure phone is unlocked).
-Remove the SIM in your phone & use WIFI where you can. I know this sounds extreme but it does massively improve your privacy if you can't be tracked.
-Get yourself a ProtonMail email address & scrap Gmail.
-Have your mail/parcels sent to a PO BOX to avoid revealing your address (Especially Bitcoin related gear like hardware wallets).
There are many other ways to improve privacy, please feel free to add some in the comments.
In summary, what I just mentioned can be extremely overwhelming & can cause paranoia & stress. There's not much one person can do about all this. We need to pass this kind of info onto friends & family. Get them thinking. Improve your privacy slowly over time, don't overthink or stress about it. You want to be concerned, but not alarmed. IRS recently put out a $1m bounty to 'hack' Monero & Lightning. They're clearly worried about the power of privacy tech. In my opinion they're fighting a losing battle. Bitcoin & the Internet has sparked exponential innovation. Remember privacy is a basic human right! It's importance will only become more apparent as time goes on. Be ahead of the game, always.
Meditate, keep improving your privacy, Stacking Sats & HODLing (Buying & holding fractions of Bitcoin). The world is in an extremely bad place right now. When the monetary system collapses, you want to be on the right side of the fence. A polarizing effect is coming, having exposure to a small amount of Bitcoin now (0.1, even 0.01 BTC) could ultimately save you & your family one day. It's not even about becoming rich anymore, it's avoiding becoming poor. It's about reclaiming your privacy & your rights. It's important you equip yourself with as much knowledge as you can. No government, bank or financial adviser will tell you this. I firmly believe what's coming will affect humanity on every level - your future lifestyle & freedom. You don't want to be on the street, searching for food in the trash. You don't want to be controlled by government money, striped of all your rights & freedom. Now is the time to pay attention.
Bitcoin is one of the main reasons I remain positive in these times. I urge you to push the boundaries & seek as much information as you can. I can almost guarantee you won't regret it. If you think you've gone deep down the rabbit hole, chances are you haven't. If you're not angry yet, keep digging. I continue to see new depths & layers all the time. I'll admit it, there's so much I don't know about our political & monetary system (It's been designed to be confusing). The deeper I go, the angrier I get. I keep telling myself though "You can't get angry". Simply buy Bitcoin & chill. It's the most powerful protest right now. Keep spreading the word. Eat well, socialize with friends/family & get adequate sleep - Looking after your health right now is key. The future will eventually be bright because of Bitcoin. Ignore the short-term price volatility or anything negative governments/corporations say about Bitcoin. It's going to get significant political push-back. It will no doubt continue to get banned & attacked because it's extremely disruptive to the financial system. Disclaimer: They can't properly restrict it's use. They can only slow adoption with regulations & ridiculous taxes. This will only hinder future prosperity of the people & allow other countries to embrace it - Game Theory. All these things should make you want it more. The end game for Bitcoin is beautiful. It will be out of this world.
Please comment on your thoughts, no censorship here.
Please subscribe to future blog posts at the bottom of this page.
If you'd like to donate:
Bitcoin: bc1qetjt7gktruqldmv7ax7p8duxtajwk47lelxl0r
Lightning: https://tippin.me
